I required my students to make a documentary of their own life history. i have gotten reports, plays, rap albums, videos, posters and cartoons back documenting their lives. Here are some examples
One major struggle that I had to overcome was like last November when i ws just leaving out my complex when the police grabbed me and slammed me to the floor and started searching me then and pucked me up and say he found some drugs. When I finally got to the station they told me they found 30grams of cocaine on me. I spent the night at the jail. The judge told me that the value was 3,000 dollars and my bond would be 1,000. I called my uncle, somebody that I knew could spare a thousand.
What I am most passionate about is being a leader but only I am only good leading the wrong way mostly like anybody that I hang with can get into with everybody, they would come to me first and see what I want to do. When I was twelve I figured out why everyone looks up to me is because i had eveything I wanted and becuase they knew everything that I had, I got it for myself.
The only place I have ever lived is Chicago and the Harold Ickes Homes. In my neighboorhood everyone talks even though most of the time everybody is atching and fight that don't stop until the police comes. My opinion on my neighborhood is that I love my neighborhood and im glad that I was never ashamed of it. Without growing up where I am I don't think I would have the heart and determination that I have. Where I grow up taught me how to take care of myself, my neighboorhood taught me how to make people fear you and when they do they don't pay you no mind becuse they will never cross you. My neighboorhood taught me how to fight. My neighborhood taught me how not to be scared of the police and to never trust them. What I think of my neighborhood it is like a teacher and it shows you all of the ways of life if you pay attention either you learn and get an A or you sleep and get an F. All the people that stay in my community are black, never did or never will I think any other race will until they remodel the projects and kick us out. The only religion that i know in my community is a few Christians, a lot of gnagsters, and twice as many snitches. One thing that I love that my community has contributed to my identity is never to be scared of anyone or to do anything.
The Street School
The problem with inner city schools is the training camp effect that they can have on some students. Like all juvenile institutions it is supposed to provide a space for encountering and transitioning into independence and adulthood. Students are exposed in a semi controlled, protected setting.
They are protected from extreme reprisals from teachers by the rules of conduct that prevent teachers from reciprocating violence. Saying fuck you to a teacher allows them to get into a controlled amount of trouble and receive some credit for being tough without their transgression attracting the attention of established gangsters. Established gangsters are not impressed with a person saying fuck you to a teacher, but saying it allows our students to walk around with an attitude as if they were tough enough to kill somebody.
They learn to stop snitching about tiny things like chewing gum or copying homework, until they graduate to not snitching about doing drugs, about sex or sex assault, about fights...
They get to have sex and finally feel relieved from the perceived softness and fragility of not having sex. They are developed by the systematic education of the street. This education is far more effective because it is consistent and unchanging. This education is also more effective because it is considered to be subversive to adult authority and an injust society, the unconscience awareness of the disparity and despair of their condition finds representation in the preresequite anger for street development.
After a period of several suspensions and usually two juvenile arrests the students are allowed to enter a probational period in a criminal apprenticeship. This education is highly competitive and usually takes the most intelligent male students, and the least intelligent, who become as disposable as a plastic bag carrying weight for a time. These most intelligent subscribe to a rigorous series of tests were the rules of development and demanding and merciless in their
consistency. Graduation takes the form of expulsion or a serious felony.
They are protected from extreme reprisals from teachers by the rules of conduct that prevent teachers from reciprocating violence. Saying fuck you to a teacher allows them to get into a controlled amount of trouble and receive some credit for being tough without their transgression attracting the attention of established gangsters. Established gangsters are not impressed with a person saying fuck you to a teacher, but saying it allows our students to walk around with an attitude as if they were tough enough to kill somebody.
They learn to stop snitching about tiny things like chewing gum or copying homework, until they graduate to not snitching about doing drugs, about sex or sex assault, about fights...
They get to have sex and finally feel relieved from the perceived softness and fragility of not having sex. They are developed by the systematic education of the street. This education is far more effective because it is consistent and unchanging. This education is also more effective because it is considered to be subversive to adult authority and an injust society, the unconscience awareness of the disparity and despair of their condition finds representation in the preresequite anger for street development.
After a period of several suspensions and usually two juvenile arrests the students are allowed to enter a probational period in a criminal apprenticeship. This education is highly competitive and usually takes the most intelligent male students, and the least intelligent, who become as disposable as a plastic bag carrying weight for a time. These most intelligent subscribe to a rigorous series of tests were the rules of development and demanding and merciless in their
consistency. Graduation takes the form of expulsion or a serious felony.
A Good Joke
From the movie Training Day:
Here's a joke, boy. One day this man walks out of his house to go to work. He sees this snail on his porch. So he picks it up and chucks it over his roof, into the back yard. Snail bounces off a rock, cracks its shell all to shit, and lands in the grass. Snail lies there dying. But it doesn't die. It eats some grass. Slowly heals. Grows a new shell. And after a while it can crawl again. One day the snail up and heads back to the front of the house. Finally, after a year, the little guy crawls back on the porch. Right then, the man walks out to go to work and sees this snail again. So he says to it, 'What the fuck's your problem?'
Figure that joke out and you'll understand the streets.
Here's a joke, boy. One day this man walks out of his house to go to work. He sees this snail on his porch. So he picks it up and chucks it over his roof, into the back yard. Snail bounces off a rock, cracks its shell all to shit, and lands in the grass. Snail lies there dying. But it doesn't die. It eats some grass. Slowly heals. Grows a new shell. And after a while it can crawl again. One day the snail up and heads back to the front of the house. Finally, after a year, the little guy crawls back on the porch. Right then, the man walks out to go to work and sees this snail again. So he says to it, 'What the fuck's your problem?'
Figure that joke out and you'll understand the streets.
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